Christopher Graham's father, David Maurice Graham (1911–99), served as a broadcaster with the BBC External Services from 1939 to 1971. He reported on the liberation of the Nazi death camps and Indian independence, and subsequently specialised in covering Eastern Europe. As an undergraduate, he had played a leading role in The King and Country debate of 1933 at the Oxford Union.[3] David Graham's father, Sir Lancelot Graham (1880-1958), was the first Governor of Sind in British India (now Pakistan).

Christopher Graham was a boy chorister at Canterbury Cathedral,. He was subsequently educated at St Edward's School, Oxford, and at Liverpool University, where he earned a B.A. degree in history and served during 1971-72 as President of the Guild of Undergraduates. He was a Liverpool City Councillor during 1971-74, one of the youngest people ever elected to a local council in the U.K. He was elected as a Liberal and served as the councillor for St. Michael's ward. Prior to his appointment as Director General of the ASA in 2000, Graham had worked for the BBC since the mid-1970s, including serving as Secretary to the Board of Governors. In the General Elections of 1983 and 1987 he stood unsuccessfully as the Liberal-SDP Alliance candidate for the North Wiltshire parliamentary constituency.[4]

Graham married Mary Crockett, a journalist with The Scotsman, in April 2010.